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Monday, September 14

Book Release Party

Release day parties are wonderfully
fun and the great thing is that each one is different from the next. You can do
whatever you want, follow your own set of rules. I have not done my own release
day party yet, but I have been an author guest for several.

You can do a party anywhere, but I’m
going to share tips on how to do a Facebook party.

1.Set a date.

Usually this will be the actual
release of your book or the first Monday or Friday after it.

2.Decide on a time frame.

A release party can last one hour,
four hours, or twelve hours. It’s up to you!

TIP #1:No matter how long your party is, make sure it’s updated with new posts
regularly to keep guests entertained and to get them to participate. You don’t want
to have a twelve-hour party with nothing happening.

3.Decide if you want author guests (or co-hosts) to come in and help out.

You can do the party all by yourself,
you can invite a ton of authors to pop in and post whenever they feel like it,
or you can specifically ask authors if they would like to participate and
assign them an hour (or two, depends on you and the author) to promote their
own work and do giveaways.

TIP #2:The authors will need a personal Facebook profile in order to post to the
event. They can’t do it through their fan page, which can create a problem if
they have a pen name. I had to create a person profile under my pen name in
order to participate in Terri’s party.

This is one of the prizes I offered once.

4.
Set up a schedule.

If you’re going to have author guests
come in throughout the day and keep your party goers interested, you should
create a schedule so you know when each author will have his or her time to have
fun.

5.Create the event.

You can do this on Facebook. On the
left hand side, under your name and profile picture, click on “Events” then
click “+Create.” You can give it a catchy title or keep it simple. Write a
small description in the “Details” area. You can include the guest schedule.
Fill in the sections for “Where,” “When,” and set the “Privacy.” Finally, add
the cover art for your release or a banner.

Notify the author guests and send them
a link so they can join the party and invite their family and friends.

TIP #3:Don’t forget to ask the people who join to invite everyone they know. With
luck, you could have 200+ people “going” to your Facebook party.

8.Prepare.

Figure out what you want to do during
your party. Will you do everything for the duration or have co-host? If you
have co-hosts, be ready to host the first and last hours of your party, and to
introduce each guest before it’s their hour to take over.

9.
Posts and giveaways.

Know what you’ll post and at what time.

When I co-hosted for Terri, I did two
ebook giveaways, a small jewelry giveaway, and a grand prize giveaway.
In-between these I posted questions for the party-goers to answer. I had one
hour, so I was posting about every five minutes and keeping up with comments.
At the end of my hour, I announced the winners of the smaller giveaways and
reminded everyone the grand prize giveaway would end the next day. To win the
grand prize, they had to “like” my Facebook page. So I kept track of the likes
I got.

The grand prize I did for my first time participating in a Facebook release party.

TIP #4:A giveaway can be anything: book swag, signed print books, eBooks, jewelry,
home décor, gift cards, or something related to one of your books.

TIP #5:
Try not to giveaway the book the party is for. You want people to buy it, not
to enter a giveaway and hope they win it.

TIP #6:Someone can be eligible for a giveaway by posting a comment to the giveaway
post or by doing something more such as liking your Facebook page, following
your blog or Twitter, etc.

TIP #7:You can do your own giveaways at the beginning and end of your party and also
let your co-hostsdo giveaways. That way many of your party goers have a chance
to win.

TIP #8:After you randomly select a winner, check to see if someone else announced them
as a winner for another prize. I noticed quite a few people for Terri’s party
were the winners for several different giveaways, even mine. If you check
first, you can do another drawing to get a new person who hasn’t won anything.

10.HAVE FUN!

Don’t stress about this! If you have
guest authors, they will take off a lot of the pressure. Enjoy your time in the
spotlight!

I was just one co-host out of many but
I loved it! I got a lot of great feedback and guests even said they loved me.
:D

11.Clean up time.

When the party is over, thank everyone
for coming and especially thank your guest authors. You can do something
special to thank them such as entering them in a giveaway for your book or send
them all a mobi copy of it.

Also, you’ll want to announce the
winners of your giveaways and notify him/her. You can tag them in a comment,
send a private message or an email. Then get the information you need to send
them their prize.

FYI:You don't need a lot of readers to do this. If you have authors as co-hosts, their readers will come to your party. Also, don't expect to sell a ton of books. This is for people to have fun and spread the news about your book. Many will be there for the prize, but you will generate interest and possibly a few sales.

SHARE:Your tips for hosting a Facebook release party.

QUESTIONS:Have you ever hosted or co-hosted a release party? What was your experience?
Have you ever joined a release party as a guest?

If you're invited to one, you just have to remember what day and time, log into FB, and click on the event. If you joined it, it should be listed on the side or under events. Then you sit back and enjoy the posts that come in. :)

I haven't done a book release party. For some reason, us guys aren't big on giving away jewelry and stuff, nor do we make much of an effort to win them. If I were to do a book party giveaway, maybe I'd give away steakburgers.

I've never had a party, but I might hold one if I know I have enough fans who'll buy the book instead of only congratulating me. It seems like the most successful release day parties are for people with a lot of fans, people who don't have to beg for help and get people volunteering their services without even being asked.

That's not true. If you get authors to co-host time slots, their readers will come to your party. This isn't just about them buying your book, but celebrating and spreading the word. A lot will be there for the prizes, don't get me wrong, but if you do it right you'll get many interested in your book and several could buy it.

Never even dawned on me about having a Facebook party. But what a wonderful idea. Obviously, I've never hosted one before, and never co-hosted or attended one. I don't even recall being invited to one. But I certainly would. I'd even be willing to co-host or have my own some day when I have something to celebrate i.e. A book release.

The closest I've come to anything like this is participating in Stephanie Faris' Cover release for her upcoming book.

Chrys, great tips! You've given me much to think about. I was planning on doing a Facebook event but only inviting individuals and that's about it. It was more of an announcement. But now I think I want to do more like have a few $10.00 Amazon gift cards and such to raffle off.

Aren't you just the busiest bee? What a novel idea :-) At this point I'd prefer to attend as I'm still in the sneaking around stage on Facebook - ha! Honestly, if planning to host a Book Release Party is anything like the planning of my daughter's wedding (three weeks from now) my hair will have an all-over silver party on my head! But you have compiled a concise and quite helpful list for those of us with the energy :-) Thank you yet again, Lady Chrys for an engaging post!